There are several interesting tidbits coming up in next Wednesday's council meeting, including L.10, discussing closing Virginia Street from the Truckee River to 4th Street to create a pedestrian mall.

Also, the city council is looking to get a report on their ReTRAC properties, excluding those in negotiation with the Generator project.

It also looks like they want to start things off earlier, and move the city council start time to 10 am.

In addition, the city may purchase or lease the parking structure at 55 East 1st Street (the Cal-Neva Parking Garage).

Fun stuff! I have no idea what the context of the discussion will be regarding closing Virginia Street from the Truckee River to 4th Street, but hopefully they mean from 1st Street to 4th Street. It would be silly to spend so much money replacing the Virginia Street Bridge is we could just replace it with a pedestrian bridge instead. Otherwise yeah, 1st Street might be a better idea. I cut across downtown on 1st Street to Lake Street/Sinclair very often. It's usually my route coming from west Reno.

What are your thoughts on possibly closing Virginia Street? Would it be a game changer for downtown?

For some great examples of what a pedestrian mall looks like, check out the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It's three blocks long, similar to what's proposed for Virginia Street. Some other notable pedestrian malls in the United States include the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, Vermont; the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia; the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada; The Grove in Los Angeles, California; Fort Street Mall in Honolulu, Hawaii; City Center in Oakland, California; Walnut Street in Des Moines, Iowa, Downtown Crossing and Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market in Boston; Washington Street Mall in Cape May, New Jersey; and The Downtown Cumberland Mall in Cumberland, Maryland.

Some questions that will probably be asked when discussed are: Is this a right choice for our primary tourist corridor? Will it help encourage more events downtown, particularly in the winter? Could it help spur redevelopment, and how would it affect the two planned residential towers at the Nevadan and Virginian? How would it affect traffic on Sierra Street and Center Street?

In looking at Third Street Promenade, the cross-streets are left untouched...so in Virginia Street's case, people driving east and west on 2nd Street would still be able to do so. Santa Monida Boulevard, one of the city's busiest streets, intersects and cuts right through the Third Street Promenade, and pedestrians are required to cross the boulevard just as they would any other street using crosswalk signals.

What do you think about it? I'm probably getting ahead of myself discussing the possibilities, knowing my luck the council will pull it from the agenda anyway.

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Comments

Thanks for the report Mike. I too am a dreamer for Reno. As someone who wants better streets and bike/ped facilities in Reno, I would argue against turning Virginia Street into a pedestrian mall.
If you research the history of the third street promenade in Santa Monica you will find that it was initially a huge failure. In fact it is very difficult to transform a large street into a bustling pedestrian mall. It took a complete redesign in the 1980s to make the mall function. And it still functions like a traditional mall - it relies on a huge supply of drivers and subsidized parking garages (on 4th street) to function.
Pedestrians require narrow streets with frequent changes in scenery to not get bored. The expert on this would be Jeff Speck's "Walkable City".
This segment of SVA has very large parcels that are not fine grained enough for pure pedestrian life.
What Reno should be looking to do is slow the traffic on California Ave and SVA in Midtown from 30mph down to 10mph. This would work wonders for these cooridors and help balance car, bike, and pedestrian activity.
At 10mph you can easily ride your bike in the flow of traffic. Pedestrians can jaywalk freely which allows them to access businesses on both sides of the street. You can even enjoy sitting outside at a sidewalk cafe because the cars are way quieter at slower speeds. What we need are shared spaces that are hospitable to all users, not a segregated system walking paths and race tracks...more Santa Barbara than Santa Monica :)

Thanks for the report Mike. I too am a dreamer for Reno. As someone who wants better streets and bike/ped facilities in Reno, I would argue against turning Virginia Street into a pedestrian mall.
If you research the history of the third street promenade in Santa Monica you will find that it was initially a huge failure. In fact it is very difficult to transform a large street into a bustling pedestrian mall. It took a complete redesign in the 1980s to make the mall function. And it still functions like a traditional mall - it relies on a huge supply of drivers and subsidized parking garages (on 4th street) to function.
Pedestrians require narrow streets with frequent changes in scenery to not get bored. The expert on this would be Jeff Speck's "Walkable City".
This segment of SVA has very large parcels that are not fine grained enough for pure pedestrian life.
What Reno should be looking to do is slow the traffic on California Ave and SVA in Midtown from 30mph down to 10mph. This would work wonders for these cooridors and help balance car, bike, and pedestrian activity.
At 10mph you can easily ride your bike in the flow of traffic. Pedestrians can jaywalk freely which allows them to access businesses on both sides of the street. You can even enjoy sitting outside at a sidewalk cafe because the cars are way quieter at slower speeds. What we need are shared spaces that are hospitable to all users, not a segregated system walking paths and race tracks...more Santa Barbara than Santa Monica :)

I like the ideas of pedestrian malls, but I agree with Brian. Though, at 10 mph whats the point of a vehicle? Meh. The more I think about it, I don't think Virginia St is right for a ped-mall. Plus for those who thought/think the location of the Community Assistance Center was a bad location this would be the cherry on-top of their sundae.

The mallification of Virginia street is the WORST IDEA EVER for all the reasons Brian laid out. It takes fine grained retail frontage to be successful, not inward facing casino megablocks. On a technical level, Virginia Street is US Highway 395 Business, and it would almost literally take an act of congress to mall it.

I'm generally pretty skeptical of pedestrian malls, but one good reason for Downtown Reno having a pedestrian mall on Virginia Street would be for the safety of tourists who like to take a picture standing right under the Reno Arch. That said, I don't think closing Virginia Street to traffic permanently is necessarily what it will take to get all the lights on from the river to the freeway. First and foremost, the city needs to develop a plan to spark new business in that corridor.

I went to college in Eugene, OR. Eugene had closed a street as a pedestrian mall and the place was a ghost town. A few years ago they reopened the street to traffic and the area is now booming.
A pedestrian mall, such as the one in Boulder is beneficial to major retail, but as mentioned above, not concrete monoliths like Reno Casinos. Reno is not likely to attract the kind of retail businesses that Boulder has. I'm not sure what Reno accomplishes by closing the street. They already do a good job of closing the street when necessary.

Lots of negative comments. Perhaps if the council gave it a shot it might draw some nice retail shops. Outdoor restaurants and galleries etc. I doubt any retailer would do that now! There is a Iot to think about logistically but complaining with no viable solution does not make much sense either.
I say go for it and if it does not work. Well ... It's not working now!

Are you kidding me, fantastic idea. Look at Fremont Street in Vegas, most of those casinos would be long gone if they had not closed the street to vehicle traffic. It's a blast just hanging out on Fremont street and listening to all of the bands. Might encourage the opening of new casinos on Virginia street as well. Do it and they will come!!!